There has long been a need in the baking industry for a depositor which will uniformly distribute particulates, particularly raisins. Distribution should be uniform both in weight per time and across the material onto which the particulates are deposited, for example, a dough sheet.
With particular reference to raisins, raisins have been problematic in their depositing. Three types of depositors have been used, those are vibratory feeders, for example, those made by Sintrum Co., screw feeders, for example, those made by Moline, paste spreaders and oscillating screens. These types of feeders have required that the raisins first be washed and then coated with a dry powder material to reduce stickiness. Even with such additional expensive and time-consuming processing, these types of feeders have been irregular or non-uniform in depositing and have caused damage to the raisins which are relatively soft and easily damaged by cutting or mashing. If the raisins are not pre-processed prior to distribution, the problems of distribution and damage are worse.
It has long been a desire in the baking industry to be able to accurately deposit raisins and other food particulates accurately and without damage to them.
The present invention provides means for depositing in a simple and inexpensive manner, from a machine standpoint, and also reduces the need for pre-processing of sticky particulates such as raisins. It was found that when using the present invention that raisins need only be washed prior to depositing and that the depositing with the present invention provided more uniform distribution both by weight per unit of time and uniformity across the width of the material being deposited upon.
In the baking industry either a sheet of dough or dough pre-forms, for example, pre-formed rolls, have raisins deposited thereon as they move under a depositor. A dough sheet with deposited raisins can be further processed, for example, laminated, and then formed into pre-forms for subsequent cooking. The pre-forms with raisins thereon are typically ready for cooking after the depositing. Further, particulates can be deposited on a bakery item after the bakery item is cooked. Because of the variety of positions at which the depositing can take place, it has long been a desire to provide a depositor that was easily portable to various positions on the processing line. The present invention also solves this problem.
Surprisingly, it was found that the present invention not only worked well with soft particulates, for example, raisins, but that it was also effective with numerous other particulate materials, for example, hard particulates like nutmeats or nutmeat portions, fragile particulates, for example, sliced almonds and streusel and non-uniformly sized particulates. The invention can also be used on fine particulates, for example, flours and cereal-grained meals and sugar.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a depositor which will uniformly deposit soft particulates like raisins.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a depositor which will handle a large variety of particulate materials.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a depositor which will handle fragile or easily damaged particulates with minimal damage thereto during depositing.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a depositor which is easily changed to accommodate different materials.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a depositor which is portable and adapted for movement to various positions on a processing line.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a depositor which overcomes the above discussed problems in the baking industry.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a depositor which is simple in construction and easy to manufacture and maintain.